Sunday, January 20, 2008

new CO2 setup for fish tank

after close to 5 years since the tank was setup, i decided to upgrade my CO2 from the yeast/sugar method to the commercial tank grade. For cost and time reasons, it's a lesser trouble to renew the CO2.

went to Nature Aquarium at Balestier to ask for pricing. Bought the stuff almost immediately:

because the solenoid requires an electrical current, i had to hook it up to my timer too. So went to Home-fix to get a new soapbar and got a multi-tap adapter included. Then on advice in the forums also the white sealing tape used by plumbers, plus a wrench for tightening the nut on the solenoid.

Expensive stuff

Solenoid

What is looks like after setup

the setup was pretty simple, since Chan did a short introduction on installation. Used some sealing tape on the thread of the CO2 tank's output, then wrenched the solenoid to the tank. Then connected the plastic tubing from the solenoid's output valve to the bubble counter, check value and the existing reactor in the fish tank. Turned it on, the left meter read 1000psi. Tried to bubble some CO2 over, which was ok but an important lesson learnt!

- connect the check valve in the correct direction. I connected it the other way, and the CO2 from the bubble counter got blocked, since the check valve allows airflow in 1 direction only. Disconnected it only to hear a loud burst, i thought it was going to exploded. Luckily not.

- turn the main knob of the CO2 tank really hard, until it moved.

there's a problem though; the solenoid's plug is not suitable with my multi-tap adapter. So have to get another adapter. Meanwhile, have turned it off to check whether the setup is leaking.